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Best young Croatia player

I think that Inter should buy him, player is fantastic and he is also most famous Croatian star.

Slaven Bilic, a member of the Croatia team that finished third at France 98 and now national U-21 coach, sees echoes of Lampard's early career in the struggle Kranjcar has faced to win over a sceptical public following his elevation to the senior national side. This scepticism was born out of the fact that the coach who promoted Kranjcar from the U-21s was his own father Zlatko. Kranjcar Sr, himself a former Yugoslavian international midfielder, called his son into the squad after replacing Otto Baric in summer 2004 and immediately handed him a starting place.

Kranjcar's competitive international debut came in Croatia's opening 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ qualifier against Hungary in Zagreb on 4 September last year – just a month after his 20th birthday - and he went on to appear in all but one of their ten fixtures as they progressed to Germany as European Group 8 winners.

According to Bilic, Kranjcar, the only domestic-based regular in Croatia's starting lineup, has "definitely proved himself with the national team" but he concedes it was not easy at first. Recalling his time with a young Lampard during his playing days at West Ham United in England, Bilic compares the two, saying: "I remember it was the same problem for Frank Lampard at West Ham. People were saying Frank was there because his father (Frank Lampard Sr) was assistant manager but look at him now – he's the best player in Europe.

"With Niko, maybe some other coach would not have given him a chance but Croatia have missed that kind of creative player; we used to have (Robert) Prosinecki and (Aljosa) Asanovic but since them we've not had one. Most of our midfielder players are more defensive so we really needed someone."

Hence Kranjcar's rapid elevation - and Croatia's success in qualifying as group winners suggests his father made the right decision. The creator in the five-man Croatian midfield, Kranjcar Jr came into his own as their qualifying campaign reached a climax, scoring and playing a key role in the 3-1 win in Bulgaria on 4 June. He then struck Croatia's goal in the 1-1 friendly draw with Brazil in August before netting his third international goal against Malta

Bilic says: "He proved himself in the national team against some good opponents like Sweden and Bulgaria and he scored against Brazil. He's got a great touch, great skill, great vision and he can finish when he gets near the box."

Youngest Dinamo captain
These qualities were evident from an early age in Kranjcar. Starting out with Dinamo Zagreb, he made history at the club by the legendary Zvonimir Boban as their youngest ever captain. In 2003, Dinamo won the championship and his role was recognised as he finished second in the poll for the best player in the Croatian league.

Although he lifted the Croatian Cup as Dinamo captain in 2004, by the end of the year his relationship with the club had soured and in January 2005, having played 85 games and scored 19 goals in a Dinamo shirt, Kranjcar left for rivals Hajduk Split in a transfer worth 1.5m euros. It was a massive deal in Croatian football - where 100,000 euros is usually regarded as a reasonable outlay – but by the summer he had another championship medal to his name.

Kranjcar started this season by scoring the only goal of the Croatian Super Cup against Rijeka – his extra-time free-kick settling matters – but the first half of 2005/06 has not been a happy time for Hajduk. Still, in Kranjcar, there is no doubting both they and Croatia have a player of vast potential.

Next summer's FIFA World Cup™ finals offer Kranjcar a wonderful platform for realising that potential but, as Bilic says, this is a player with time on his side, whatever happens in Germany. "People forget he is only 21 as he has been playing regularly in the Croatian league for four years now but he has got a long time in front of him."

this is text before a year
Croatia's young bright star Niko Kranjčar(at times called the new Boban) looks set to join AC Milan after beeing transfer listed by his club Dinamo Zagreb where he fell out with his coach and sports director,the asking price is in the range of 1,5-3mil Euros!The rumor was confirmed by his manager Davor Šuker and to add fuel to the fire Niko's representative for Italy is Marko Naletilić a close personal friend of Ariedo Braida!Niko was mentioned as a Milan transfer target in the summer by La Gazetta Dello Sport claiming that Milan have branded him as their man for the future....
So there you go boys and girls...food for thought...I know most of you probably haven't heard of him...he's an attacking midfielder who is a regular feature in the Croatian national team since his dad took over the team The article does say that he will be loaned out for the rest of the season once he joins AC to Bari,Udinese,Sampdoria or Fiorentina

Milan are no longer interested in him, but Bayern and Lyon are chasing him now.
I think it will be good for him to go to Bayern cause Ballack will probably leave, so he could even have a place in the starting lineup.

Serie A is the thoughest league in the world..You gotta try hard to succed here and doesn't have it..He is very talented but you have to run a lot to play in serie a and he is too lazy to do that..Besides he doesn't fit in Inter's formation.

O no no no..who is comparing him to boban or prosinecki?? They were world class players,proved at biggest world clubs..Kranjcar is just a talented technical player who doesn't run at all...And he is a what some Interisti would call Ronaldo - fatass!!

he's not even a pure Cro is he? Wasn't he born in Austria or something?
I don't think Niko is fat, I just think he's one lazy *******.

To me he's not even the best young player in Croatia, I reckon Dudu is a much better player.

ps. I haven't got along with you kova, but confession time. To me, the most talented player I have ever seen out of Europe in the last 20 years...to me, its Robert Prosinecki. But what...how many packs of ciggies did he smoke a day? two or three wasn't it? Talk about wasted talent, fark me he was good.

Nope..Niko Kranjčar was born as Niko Krajnčar in Austria..His father Zlatko changed their surname letters from "jn" to "nj"..Zlatko is born Croatian from Zagreb but Niko isn't..He has Austrian and Croatian passport but he is 99% Croatian since he didn't have much to do with Austria since his birth..
And trust me he is about 5 to 10 kilos over weight.And he is damn lazy..

About Prosinečki,yeah he smoked about 2 packs a day and he still does..But his career was phucking amazing..If you ask me he was even better talent and player than Boban..Did you know that Miroslav Ciro Blazevic (you all know who he is) said that he would eat his manager diploma if Prosinecki ever becomes a good player!! LOL... Robi started at Dinamo Zagreb,then he moved to Red Star Belgrade and won CL with them..He went to Real Madrid than to Barcelona..What a legend!!!

As I said, to me Prosi was better than any other European player in the last 20 years, that includes Baggio and all the other great Europeans.
He was so good at times it wasn't funny. I saw him as a great player, but when he wanted to play...he was a phenomenol. No words could descrive Robi.
The fact that Red Star fans consider him a legend says it all. Legend!

Niko's father Zlatko used to play for Rapid Vienna once and therefore Niko was born in Austria. I don't think that he has an austrian passport, since his father has none and you don't get a passport here, unless you have lived here for 10 years.

His father seems like an ok guy...after all the old morons like Blazevic and Baric coaching croatia, they have finally a semi decent guy, not someone who was friends with Tujman or claimed that he has a third eye for gay players.

damn....this baric was a classless moron!!!

"I thought Biggie had a different way of putting words together. He was different"